Ohio Sees Record-Breaking Year For Organ Donations, Many Still Wait

The state has made progress but time is running out on many more.

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Lifeline of Ohio says organ, eye and tissue donations broke last year’s record. In 2018, 366 lives were saved, tissue donation increased by 25 percent and the gift of sight through cornea donation was up 47 percent.

Those blessings are amazing but many Ohioans like Tyler Cummins have been on the organ list for over a year now and counting.

“I feel a little helpless,” he said. “And at times I feel a little discouraged. It’s not a tree where you can just go pick an organ off a branch. In order for me to benefit, someone else has to lose. And we’re talking about life here. It’s the most precious thing in the world.”

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Cummins has O-positive blood type which makes his and others like him chance is slimmer due to the rare blood type. He is among the 3,000 people in Ohio that are waiting on a transplant. In the U.S. 113,766 people waiting for an organ transplant.